Editing Life with Lucy (section)

===Cancellation===
Fourteen episodes were written, thirteen filmed, but only eight aired. The final to air, "Mother of the Bride", was the twelfth episode filmed and featured [[Audrey Meadows]] as Lucy's sister. Meadows was offered to be cast as a regular to give the show a new direction and Ball's character a comic foil and partner, similar to the role of [[Vivian Vance]] in Ball's previous series. (This was the only Ball sitcom in which Vance, who had died in 1979, never appeared). However, Ball and Meadows did not get along on the set, and Meadows turned down the offer.<ref name="Fidelman" />{{rp|342}} On November 17, the day of the taping the final episode, ABC informed Spelling and Morton that they were not ordering a full season, thus cancelling the series. Morton decided not to reveal the news to Ball until after the taping had ended.<ref name="Fidelman" />{{rp|343}}

Since only 13 episodes were produced, it was not possible for the series to go into heavy rerun rotation like ''[[I Love Lucy]]''. Nevertheless, it aired on [[Nick at Nite]] as part of a Lucille Ball-themed [[Marathon (media)|marathon]] in 1996. Episodes can also be found at the [[Paley Center for Media]] in New York City and Beverly Hills, California.

Ball was devastated by the failure of the show, and she never again attempted another series or feature film; her subsequent interviews and other TV appearances were infrequent.<ref name="Fidelman" />{{rp|343–44}} Her last public appearance was as a presenter at the [[61st Academy Awards|1989 Academy Awards]], where she and fellow presenter [[Bob Hope]] were given a standing ovation. She died a month later, in April 1989. In a 1999 interview with the [[Archive of American Television]], Aaron Spelling attributed the failure of the show to his decision to allow Ball to do the same type of shows she had done in the past. Spelling said that at her age, the audience were more worried for her safety than laughing at her pratfalls. Spelling said this experience had a lot to do with his rarely producing sitcoms.<ref name="Spelling" />

In July 2002, ''TV Guide'' named ''Life with Lucy'' the 26th worst TV series of all time, stating that it was "without a doubt, the saddest entry in [its] list of bad TV shows of all time". In his book ''What Were They Thinking? The 100 Dumbest Events in Television History'', author David Hofstede ranked the series at No. 21 on the list.<ref>{{cite book|author=David Hofstede|title=What Were They Thinking? The 100 Dumbest Events in Television History|publisher=[[Back Stage Books]]|year=2004|pages=159–161|isbn=0-8230-8441-8}}</ref>